by Zara Chase
Several people shouted a warning that Aisha barely heard. She was aware of movement and activity all around her but was fixated on the angry leopard and seemed unable to look away. Another leopard appeared in her line of vision. A larger one—presumably a male. He placed himself between Aisha and the female, but he was too late to protect Aisha. The female sidestepped him, sprang up from strong hind legs, and launched herself at Aisha.
It was too much, too real for Aisha’s mind to overcome her fear. She willed herself to wake up, but the nightmare persevered. The thought of being ripped to shreds by those wicked teeth, even in a dream, made Aisha so afraid that her mind shut down, her world swayed, and she fell away into a dead faint.
* * * *
When Aisha opened her eyes again she was lying on a couch. She had to be in the guys’ apartment because she recognized the decor. Mikael, with his long stripy hair, sat beside her checking her vital signs. Before she could say anything she heard Kane and Tyrone come in.
“She okay?” Kane asked in an anxious voice.
“Just regained consciousness. Treat her gently and give her some of this to drink when she needs to sleep, or if it gets too much for her. It’s just a mild sedative.”
“Okay, thanks,” Tyrone said.
“All sorted out over there?”
Aisha saw Tyrone wipe blood from a deep scratch on his arm. “Yeah, it’s over.”
“Good. I’ll get the details from Rafe. You just look after your lady.”
“That’s all we’ve ever wanted to do,” Kane replied.
They sat down on either side of her and Kane took her hand. The weirdness of the proceedings in the Cat’s Whiskers came back to her and she snatched it away. She knew it was all in her imagination—that her body must be suffering from lack of fresh oxygen, too much sex, not enough sleep—something. Even so, she felt wary of them.
“How do you feel?” Kane asked.
“How do you think?”
“We’re sorry, that shouldn’t have happened,” Tyrone said.
“Ah, so it did happen. I did faint. It wasn’t just my mind playing tricks on me.”
“Mikael caught you before you hit the floor.”
“Oh well, that’s all right then.”
“What do you think you saw?” Kane asked.
Aisha laughed, even though it wasn’t remotely funny. “A beautiful woman turning into a wild beast. How wacky is that? Wanna send me off to the funny farm right away?”
“We didn’t want you to find out this way,” Kane said, looking deadly serious but wisely not trying to touch her again.
“You’re kidding me, right?” She opened her eyes very wide and swallowed against the ache in her throat. This absolutely couldn’t be happening. “Please tell me it’s all some kind of sick joke.”
“Do you trust us, Aisha?” Kane asked.
Did she? She shared a look between them. Their handsome faces were alight with anxiety as they waited for her to answer, as though her opinion really counted for something. Against all the odds she did feel safe—not just with them but with everyone she’d met so far in Impulse. With the exception of those two women, obviously. She’d felt the spirit of community the moment she set foot in Impulse. She also knew that no one had answered her questions with complete honesty. Well, the time had come for that situation to change.
“Trust works both ways, guys. I need to know what’s going on here.”
“We couldn’t tell you before.”
“Because I work in the media?”
“No,” Kane said. “We’re used to media types sniffing around us. We can handle them.”
“Then why not?”
“This is going to freak you out,” Kane said. He took her hand again, and this time she didn’t snatch it away. “But you deserve to know everything. The odd things that go on here in Impulse, the air, the way we move, the way we communicate—everything relates to who, or should I say what, we actually are.”
Aisha gulped, afraid to hear more, afraid not to. “Don’t stop now,” she said in a voice that sounded most unlike her own.
“Well, darling, you saw the evidence in the bar just now.” Tyrone took her other hand. “So I guess there’s no point in sugarcoating it. We’re…er, feline shape-shifters.”
“You’re what!” She sat bolt upright and stared at them with incomprehension. “Did I just hear you right?”
“I know it’s a lot to take in but—”
“I had no idea shape-shifters actually existed. I thought they only featured in fantasy fiction.” She paused, her mind racing as she assimilated all they’d told her and read the sincerity in their expressions. This was beyond weird, and Aisha was tempted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. “But if what I saw in the bar just now really happened—”
“It did,” Tyrone said, scowling. “It shouldn’t have. It violated just about every code we live by, but when shifters get mad they can’t always control the impulse to revert to animal form. Maria’s been living in the human world for two years, and I don’t think she’s shifted once in that time, so her instincts when she came back here were too strong for her to fight against.”
“Back up a bit,” Aisha said, her head swimming. “Tell me how it all started.”
Kane shrugged. “Shifters have inhabited planet Earth right alongside humans for…well, forever really. You wouldn’t know it, but you’ve probably met more than one in your lifetime. Most people have. But Impulse is special. Because of the thin air, we have extended lifespans. We age one year for every human three.”
“You have got to be joking!”
“Nope.” Tyrone smiled at her. “Kane and I are pushing ninety in human years.”
Aisha shook her head. “Now I know I’m drunk.”
“It’s down to the ions in the atmosphere, but don’t ask me how it works. No one actually knows for sure. It’s one of the few places on the planet where it happens, which means we’re under constant threat of invasion from other shifters who want to take it over for themselves.”
“Shifters outside of Impulse’s rarified atmosphere live the same lifespans as ordinary mortals,” Tyrone told her. “So their desire to take Impulse from us is compelling.”
“I suppose it must be,” she said, wondering if she was having some sort of out-of-body experience and would wake up back in her own bed in New York.
“We do a lot of good here,” Kane explained. “Mikael can cure terminally ill children, but if word of that reached the media we’d never have a moment’s peace. We do it all anonymously, but some of our enemies want to exploit that ability for monetary gain.”
“So, supposing I believe you, how do you prevent the families of those cured from talking about it?”
“We can wipe their memories.”
Aisha rolled her eyes but didn’t bother to take issue. What would be the point?
“We don’t expect you to believe us right off, but you’ll come to see the truth eventually.”
“Tell me about the women in the bar,” she said wearily.
“Maria is my mate,” Tyrone said.
“Oh, your mate. Right.”
“Well, she was, but she chose to leave Impulse.”
“Some adult shifters can’t hack all the tension, the constant threat of attack, being different and not being able to talk about it, and so they leave,” Kane said.
“But Maria took my two kids, which isn’t acceptable. For two years I’ve been trying to get her to bring them back voluntarily. It’s only a matter of time before our enemies latch on to them and use them as bargaining tools to get at me. Kane and I are alpha leopards, you see, and if they can eliminate one or both of us, that will weaken our overall hold on Impulse.”
Aisha wondered at the powers of the human mind. Instead of laughing in their faces, she actually believed what Tyrone had just said and felt worried for his kids.
“Rafe is alpha panther along with Vilas,” Kane said. “He’s also overall leader of the colony.
He called Maria in today to try and resolve the issue. He can make an edict forcing her to return the children. Her shifter soul can’t fight against a direct order issued by our leader. But she surprised me by not making that necessary and agreeing to return voluntarily, which is when I said she couldn’t live with me again. She broke our mating ritual by sleeping with another man and I don’t have to take her back. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
“Not really, but it would make a good book.”
“Glad to see you’ve regained your sense of humor,” Kane said, brushing a hand lightly across her hair.
“It’s that or lose it.” She sat a little straighter. “Okay, so your wife, or mate, or whatever the hell she is, wants to return to Impulse, but you live and sleep with Kane now and don’t want her intruding on your cozy little arrangement. Have I got that right?”
“Kane and I only linked up after Maria left, for reasons which I’ll explain later. Maria was adamant that she didn’t want to come back, which was fine by me. When Rafe left her with no choice, she hit me with her decision just before I left the meeting and came back down to the bar. I had no idea what to do about it. Maria and I grew up together and our families just kinda assumed we’d mate. A bit like humans used to drift into marriage before these enlightened times of personal choice. I didn’t want her living with us, but if I didn’t allow it, she’d just poison the kids’ minds against me. I had to get out of there and have some space to think. Of course, she didn’t give it to me and tagged along. Everything has to be on Maria’s terms.”
“And when Tyrone got to the bar he saw Susanna,” Kane said. “Which kinda made sense of what’s being going on.”
“Sense, right.” Aisha took a deep, calming breath and turned toward Kane. “Okay, big boy, it’s your turn. Who’s Susanna, where does she come into this, and do I need to take notes to keep everything straight?”
“Every other generation of shifter has to either mate with another shifter or a human in order for us to maintain our powers. Tyrone needed to mate with another shifter, whereas I need to find a human mate. Maria broke the code, and so Tyrone’s now free to mate again wherever he likes.” He fixed Aisha with a penetrating gaze. “And he likes what I like.”
“Hey, don’t look at me.”
“Don’t say no until you hear what we’re offering.”
“I was joking.”
Kane fixed her with a penetrating gaze. “I wasn’t.”
She sighed. “Okay, so you need a human mate.”
“Right, and if I have full-on sex with any woman other than my destined mate, then I lose all my powers.” He sighed. “As an alpha, I can’t afford to take that risk.”
Perhaps Aisha was getting as wacky as they were, but she actually believed him. “That’s why you didn’t—”
“Exactly.”
She let out a nervous little laugh. “And I thought it was me. I wasn’t beautiful enough, alluring enough—”
“Oh, babe!” they said together.
“You have no idea how much we want you,” Tyrone said alone. “Because of Maria’s exhibition in the bar earlier, Rafe has issued an edict banning her from Impulse. The kids will come here and live with me.”
“I’m glad.” She touched his injured arm lightly. “Did you have to fight with her?”
“Yeah, it was the only way to stop her from going on a rampage and attacking you. When a shifter goes rogue, it’s not a pretty sight.”
“Why did she pick on me?”
“Because she sensed our interest in you. She was guided by jealousy.”
“Oh.”
“The thing is,” Tyrone continued, drilling her with a look of such unguarded passion that her pussy clenched and she had to fight the urge to fling herself into his arms, not caring who or what he really was. “Now that I’m officially free of Maria, I can mate again with either human or shifter, and there’s only one person I want to mate with.”
“Kane?”
“Oh yeah, that won’t change. Chantal, Layla, and Talia are all humans mated with shifters, and those shifters still get it on with each other as well as their human mate. A bit like we did last night.”
“Now I think I understand.” She also understood why Chantal and Layla had been less than honest when answering some of her questions. “The men fuck each other because they can’t have a female until they find the right one. But by the time they find that female, they’re so into each other that they don’t want to stop.”
“We had fun, didn’t we?”
“Yes.” She conceded the point with a firm nod. “I can’t pretend that we didn’t.”
“I had a real problem,” Kane said. “I went to a conference in Miami just before you got here and woke up with a woman.”
“The woman in the bar?”
“Right. I had no idea what had happened the night before, but it didn’t look good. Then you turned up and I knew you were the mate we’d almost given up on finding. But neither of us could explain that to you because of Maria and my situation with the woman in Miami.” He shrugged. “Turns out Maria and she had become friends and Maria had spun her a line about me taking Tyrone away from her and the kids.”
“So she drugged you to make you think you’d had sex.”
“Yeah. And if we actually had, I would have had to stick with a woman who wasn’t destined to be my mate, if she’d have me, or lost my ability to shift. That would be like a living death, having all the instincts but not being able to act on them.”
“But now we’re both free,” Tyrone said, offering her a sexy smile that joined forces with her clenched pussy and melted her insides. “There are lots of downsides to living here but no end of benefits, too. If you agree to become our mate, once we’ve had sex you’ll inherit the longevity gene and you’ll have the two of us devoted to you.”
Aisha blinked at them, convinced she must still be hallucinating. “You’re actually serious.”
“Never more so,” Kane said with abject sincerity.
“My powers are still fairly strong,” Tyrone said, “because I was mated with Maria, but Kane’s are on the wane. Having sex with the right woman will put that right.”
“Tyrone shouldn’t have told you that,” Kane said. “Not yet at least. You’ve already got too much information to process, and we don’t want to put pressure on you. Now, you must have questions.”
“I want to see one of you shift for me,” she said, unaware that she actually felt that way until the words left her lips.
“I’ll do it,” Kane said, leaping from the settee and going down on all fours.
“Kane’s a snow leopard,” Tyrone said. “Whereas I’m just your average spotty cat.”
“All that smoky-gray hair,” she said softly. “That’s the color of his pelt, I take it.”
“See for yourself, darlin’.”
With her hand in Tyrone’s Aisha watched, fascinated rather than scared, as whiskers appeared on Kane’s jaw. His clothes appeared to disintegrate and gray fur covered his arms and legs. Bones popped and joints groaned as his limbs stretched, his body arched, and the transformation was complete. A long tail lashed, ears and whiskers twitching as he stalked over to Aisha and rubbed his face against her leg. She reached out a hand and scratched his ears, causing Kane to purr loudly.
“He’s beautiful,” she said, awe in her voice.
“Aw, don’t tell him that, sweetheart. It’ll make him impossible to live with.”
“All that face rubbing you guys do. Now I’m starting to understand.”
Tyrone flashed a wicked smile. “There’re other bits we like to have rubbed, too.”
Aisha bit her lip to prevent a smile of her own escaping. “Don’t I already know it!”
When Aisha quit petting Kane he shifted back to human form and flopped down naked on the couch beside her.
“Beautiful, am I?” he asked, flashing an irrepressible grin.
“Get over yourself. It was just an expression.”
&n
bsp; “And she hasn’t seen my spots yet,” Tyrone pointed out.
“You look done in, sweetheart,” Kane said. “Time for bed. We promise not to lay a paw on you until you’ve had time to think about what we’ve told you, but we’d be happier if you slept with us.”
“No, I need to be alone,” she replied. “I can’t think straight with you guys crowding me.”
“Fair enough. We’ll come and tuck you in. And you need to drink this. Mikael left it for you. It will help you to sleep.”
She did drink it once she was in bed because she needed to empty her mind and crash for a few hours. A good night’s sleep might provide a few answers.
Or not.
“Rafe’s holding Maria here for the time being,” Kane said, sitting on the edge of her bed and again brushing her hair away from her face. “Tyrone and I are going to St. Augustine first thing tomorrow to pick up his kids. When they’re here safely she’ll be released and won’t be allowed access to Impulse ever again. Will you be all right without us?”
“Of course,” she said drowsily.
“You will be here when we get back?” Tyrone asked anxiously. “We still have a lot to talk about, but I need to make sure my kids are safe first.”
“Yes, I’m not planning on leaving quite yet.”
“Talk to Chantal,” Kane said. “She’s been where you are now and I’m sure it will help.”
Aisha tried to answer him, but it felt like too much effort. With her mind on overload, her eyes fluttered to a close and she went out like a light.
Chapter Fourteen
Mikael’s sedative worked a little too well. Aisha slept so soundly that when she awoke the sun was already high in the sky. Yawning, stretching, going through her usual routine to wake herself up, it took a moment for the events of the previous night to register since her brain was taking its own sweet time getting itself into gear. In the warm light of a Floridian day, her situation seemed surreal. The guys’ crazy revelations had to be a product of her overactive imagination.
